HADSELL STORMER KEENY RICHARDSON & RENICK
128 North Fair Oaks Ave
Pasadena, California 91103
(626) 585-9600

ROTHNER SEGALL & GREENSTONE
510 South Marengo Ave
Pasadena, CA, 91101
(626) 796-7555

 

-FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE-

VICTORY AGAINST ZIBA, BEAUTY CENTER TO THE STARS, FOR VIOLATING BASIC LABOR LAWS!

Court Certifies Class Action Lawsuit Against Ziba - Which Has Serviced Many High-Profile Clients - For Violation of Numerous California Laws Contact: Virginia Keeny (626) 585-9600 / vk@hskrr.com [Los Angeles, CA] This morning, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Solner certified a class action lawsuit against Ziba Beauty Center, finding plaintiffs Jyoti Parmar, Bishnu Shahani and Payal Modi could represent a class of over 300 hundred workers for widespread violations of California labor laws. “This is a huge victory against the exploitation of immigrant workers like me,” said plaintiff Jyoti Parmar, who worked as a “threading artist” at Ziba for approximately 8 years. “I worked long hours at Ziba without rest breaks and don’t believe Ziba ever paid me overtime,” added Parmar. The class includes over 315 former and current employees who allege that Ziba took advantage of their workers, mostly immigrant women from South Asia, by failing to pay them for overtime work, permit them to take meal and rest breaks as required by California labor law, in addition to numerous record-keeping violations.

“This case involves some of the most flagrant abuses of California law I’ve seen in my career,” said plaintiffs’ attorney Virginia Keeny, who helped win a similar lawsuit against Chinese Daily News that resulted in a jury verdict of $5.2 million. “The type of evidence that Ziba submitted to the court were comments by CEO Sumita Batra that she knew workers took breaks because she does a ‘Starbucks run’ with them herself,” added Keeny. Ziba operates twelve stores throughout Southern California and is well-known for supplying beauty services, including those based on South Asian techniques to both celebrities and the general public. Ziba has styled contestants in TV shows including America’s Next Top Model and Extreme Makeover and was chosen by Madonna to style her for the cover of Rolling Stone Magazine.

The lawsuit was filed in June 2008. Since then, numerous employees of Ziba, including former managers, have testified that Ziba Company policy was not to pay workers overtime, that employees were required to work off-the-clock, and were paid a flat rate of $50 a day while required to work 8-11 hours a day. Ziba employees who spoke out about these policies were fired.
“Today, the Court sent a strong signal that Ziba will be held accountable for its exploitation of immigrant workers,” said plaintiffs’ attorney Richa Amar.

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